Encrypting data obfuscates data to an entity that intercepts the data. The intended information is generally referred to as plaintext. The encrypted information is ciphertext. An authorized receiver of the ciphertext can generally decrypt the ciphertext to recover the plaintext.
Error detection is an ability to determine whether the plaintext recovered at the receiver is the intended plaintext. Error correction is the ability to determine the intended plaintext if an error is present in the recovered plaintext.
Previous encryption techniques do not provide an inherent and flexible ability to detect and/or correct errors in recovered plaintext.